Of late I’ve been binge watching late-nights shows from the US, thanks to a good data plan and immediate posting on YouTube of these shows (take that Star World Premier).
Here are the channels of shows of Stephen Colbert (CBS), Trevor Noah (Comedy Central), Seth Meyers (NBC), John Oliver (HBO), James Corden (CBS), Samantha Bee (TBS), Chelsea Handler (Netflix), Jimmy Kimmel (ABC), Jimmy Fallon (NBC), Conan O’Brien (TBS), Bill Maher (HBO) and Larry Wilmore.
I discovered them accidentally when I was looking for presidential debates, except for John Oliver who I discovered thanks to his take on Net Neutrality. Most of these show hosts gave their comic and informed take on these debates and I sort of liked them.
In the last few months, there is a peculiar pattern to most of these shows; especially the first three linked above. Long monologues dissecting and lampooning Trump news, antics and same guests doing the rounds. And a few days ago, Trump went after them with this:
Late Night host are dealing with the Democrats for their very “unfunny” & repetitive material, always anti-Trump! Should we get Equal Time?
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 7, 2017
Repetitive – Yes. Unfunny – No. You do get a déjà vu watching these shows with same news sources being cited and similar jokes being told. But, I don’t mind as one or the other of them, has an extremely sharp take. Vox in fact praised how they covered Trump citing the reason behind this as their extremely low tolerance for bullshit.
This brings me to the question, if there are 10 odd shows on TV in the US, with all of them having a similar theme, look and format, why aren’t they any on Indian TV?
Addendum: Here are a couple of very well written articles about the late night journalism – Firstpost: Late-night comedy is new face of conscientious journalism, Guardian: How Fallon fell: why is the late-night host floundering in Trump’s America?
